To Be Kept Sacred

As Mormon described the Nephite civilization after their great war with the Lamanites, he told of what happened to the sacred records. Previously they had been passed down from Alma to his son Helaman (the great general in the war), who had just died. They were given to his brother Shiblon to care for: “And it came to pass in the commencement of the thirty and sixth year of the reign of the judges over the people of Nephi, that Shiblon took possession of those sacred things which had been delivered unto Helaman by Alma.” Shiblon, though, did not live much longer and he needed to pass them on again to another righteous man: “Therefore it became expedient for Shiblon to confer those sacred things, before his death, upon the son of Helaman, who was called Helaman, being called after the name of his father.” Mormon then recorded two important things about these plates. First, they were to be written and made accessible to the people: “Now behold, all those engravings which were in the possession of Helaman were written and sent forth among the children of men throughout all the land.” Second, they were to be kept sacred: “Nevertheless, these things were to be kept sacred, and handed down from one generation to another; therefore, in this year, they had been conferred upon Helaman, before the death of Shiblon” (Alma 63:1, 11-13). Surely for us in our individual families these are two principles we should also follow: we need to get the scriptures into the hands and minds of our children, and we need to help them feel that the words of holy writ are indeed sacred.

            Recently I think we were able to accomplish this in a small way with one of our children. She hasn’t usually been that interested in participating in our family scripture study, coming in and out at best. And then something happened and she started asking us for her own scriptures. It was certainly hard to say no to that, and so we bought her a set of scriptures (with a pink cover, of course). Since then, she has actually been reading them and bringing them to scripture study as a family. I can tell that she now has a greater reverence for the book she is holding in her hands—she has felt, in some small way, that they are indeed sacred. Each of us must find ways to see and feel continually that the scriptures are sacred and of great value to us. As Alma put it to his son Helaman, “They must retain their brightness” (Alma 37:5). He was talking about the physical characteristics of the plates, but his statement applies to us in how we view the words of the scriptures. We must not let them become devalued or just another book on the shelf, for they have been given by the power of God to guide and inspire and correct and bring the light of Christ into our lives each day. As the Lord said to Oliver Cowdery, “Trifle not with sacred things” (Doctrine and Covenants 6:12).      

            Perhaps one way to help us continue to feel that the scriptures are indeed sacred is to remember the incredible sacrifices of so many who brough us their words. The Lord chastened those of our generation who have forgotten how they got the Bible: “O fools, they shall have a Bible; and it shall proceed forth from the Jews, mine ancient covenant people. And what thank they the Jews for the Bible which they receive from them? Yea, what do the Gentiles mean? Do they remember the travails, and the labors, and the pains of the Jews, and their diligence unto me, in bringing forth salvation unto the Gentiles?” (2 Nephi 29:4). We should remember “the travails, and the labors, and the pains” of all the ancient prophets who have labored diligently to bring us the word of God. And in modern times we owe a great debt to others such as William Tyndale and John Wycliffe who courageously sought to make the word of God accessible to all people. And, of course, we are grateful for the Prophet Joseph Smith in our dispensation who, according to John Taylor, gave his life to give us the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants: “To seal the testimony of this book and the Book of Mormon, we announce the martyrdom of Joseph Smith the Prophet, and Hyrum Smith the Patriarch…. The reader in every nation will be reminded that the Book of Mormon, and this book of Doctrine and Covenants of the church, cost the best blood of the nineteenth century to bring them forth for the salvation of a ruined world” (Doctrine and Covenants 135:1, 6). May we always hold sacred and help our families cherish the holy word of God given to us in such abundance in this last dispensation.